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Monday, 3 March 2014

Councils spending £2.9m on food poverty

An
investigation by BBC’s Panorama has revealed that more than a third of councils in England and Wales are
subsidising food banks. The programme claims that £2.9m has been set aside
by local authorities over the past
couple of years to combat food poverty. Panorama asked all 375 councils in England and Wales about food
banks for its programme, Hungry Britain?, which will be broadcast
tonight. Of the 323 councils that
responded, 140 said that they were providing funding. The programme also claims
that the two councils covering the
constituency of Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, have between
them spent almost £70,000 to combat food poverty over the past two years.
Professor Liz Dowler, a food policy expert and one of the authors of a recent
government report about food banks, said there was a danger the lines between
food banks and the state were becoming blurred. "Food banks are an inadequate
plaster over a gaping wound," she said. "They do not solve the problems. And
that they should be enshrined as an inadequate solution is deeply
immoral."